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CLG’s perfect week came at the right time: Joe’s LCS blog

Counter Logic Gaming just went 2-0 in its hardest week of the spring North American League of Legends Championship Series split. Facing off against the top two teams, and beating both, speaks a lot for how much CLG has improved over the split.

In today’s game against Coud9, its team comp well rounded, having a lot of pressure that could be applied in the side lanes with Udyr and Jax. Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaha has been showing the world that split push on non tank champions are still very much apart of the metagame.

CLG would have had the upper hand all game if it wasn’t for Lee “Rush” Yoon-jae’s insane plays on Lee Sin, showing he might be the best Lee Sin in the world. CLG’s team comp was too powerful, though, and with a great ultimate late in the game by Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black on Bard, once CLG got map control, there was really nothing C9 could do except force a desperate Baron. CLG’s strategy revolving around Darshan is the story of their team so far. Cloud 9’s story has all been about Rush and Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, as An “BalIs” Le has many inconsistent showings, and C9’s bot lane has never been overwhelming.

There should be nothing to worry about if you’re a C9 fan, though, as the games against the top teams such as Immortals and CLG has been very close, and once playoffs rolls around, they could have a great chance in a longer series.

TSM still struggling

The Team Liquid/Team SoloMid game started off rough for TSM’s bot lane. Once TL hit a fast Level 2, Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin and Matt “Matt” Elento went super aggressive, chipping away at almost all Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s health bar. Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett used this lane advantage to constantly invade the enemy jungle on that side of the map, essentially snowballing off of a Level 2 power spike.

Overall, TL won the draft being able to get Lulu and Nautilus while only giving up Gangplank. Dardoch’s constant pressure affected the entire map, not letting Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen help any of his laners. Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg looked fine, as he usually does, but he was put on Orianna, a champion that cannot really dominate its lane, especially against a champion like Lulu who has high wave clear.

It’s pretty obvious right now that Doublelift and Bora “YellowStar” Kim have been having immense trouble through the season. The Level 2 snowball was directly caused by them, and there was a point where they even almost got killed single-handedly by TL’s Samson “Lourlo” Jackson. In this game, specifically, Yellowstar looked bad, never being aware of when Dardoch landed a Sonic Wave to allow Dardoch to get a kick off on TSM’s carries.

Take nothing away from Dardoch, though. Just like Rush, his Lee Sin was amazing. He continues to impress.

Renegades wins ugly

Renegades finally got its second win today in defeating Dignitas. It was a very close game with a strange beginning. During the lane swap, Dignitas made an error when trying to take the initial tower on bot lane, resulting in two players being executed by the turret. Seconds later, Renegades suffered a similarly odd fate, when Alberto “Crumbz” Rengifo and Shin “Seraph” Wu-Yeong (who was subbing in as the top laner) were executed by the Rift Herald. These are things that should never happen in a setting like the LCS, where these are supposed to be the top players in the world. Funny as it looked, it is very disappointing to see those mistakes and just shows the troubles Dignitas and Renegades have been going through the whole season.

The rest of the game was very close, with Dignitas eventually gaining a lead. In an attempt to defend the bottom inhibitor turret, Alexey “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin tried to initiate a fight by flanking with Lissandra. Dignitas had a good disengage with Poppy and Gragas ult, resulting in Alex’s death and the destruction of bottom inhibitor. Later on, Dig attempted to take a second inhibitor in top lane, but with a great initiation by Renegades, were able to take out Dignitas’ AD Carry, Apollo “Apollo” Price on Kog’Maw, resulting in a successful Baron, regaining the lead.